Improvement in devices for sewing hat-linings in sewing-machines



1; W. BLACKHAM. 1 Sewing Machine.

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N, PETERS. Plloku-Lilhogmpher. Washmglun. u c.

Patented April 5, 1864;

I UNITED STATES JOB V. BLAOKHAM, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

IMFROVEMENT lN DEVICES FOR SEWING HAT-LININGS lN SEWING-MACHINES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 42,!58. dated April 5, 1864.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOB W. BLACKI-IAM, of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Sewing-lllachines; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which Figure l is a side elevation, and Fig. 2 a plan view, showing the novel portions,\vith so much of the other portions as is necessary to indicate their relations thereto.

Similar letters of reference indicatelike parts in both figures.

My invention is adapted to sew together the parts of the lining of hats. The lining, or the portion thereof which my machine is intended to operate on, is formed in two parts. One part encircles the head. in the form of a hollow cylinder or hollow elliptical figure, and the other, usually designated the tip,is plane and extends across the top. I mount the silk or other material adapted to form the tip on a rotating platform which revolves very freely on a slender axis, and I supply the material to be sewed thereto through a guide of -any suitable construction. Asewing-machineofanyapproved construction may be used, and the feeding mechanism of an y ordinary sewing-machine will suffice, by its action in the ordinary manner,in connection with my invention, to impart the proper gradual rotating motion. After the circuit has been completed I remove the goods and supply other pieces and repeat the operation.

Ordinary hats are considerably oval, and I mount my axis on a sliding frame and provide mechanism for moving it with great ease and precision, so that the line of stitches shall describe exactly the oval desired. I thus make oval linings adapted to correspond far more perfectly with the interior of the hat than if the circuitdescribed by theline of stitches were perfectly circular.

The nature of my invention consists in the means whereby I am able to move my center, or the pintle on which my tip revolves, with ease and precision.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my machine, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation by the aid of the drawings and of the letters of reference marked thereon.

A is an ordinary frame-work of the sewingmachine.

A is a rigid frame-Work attached to the fixed framing A,and a a are V-tshaped grooves.

B is a traversing carriage mounted on four anti-friction wheels,b, with corresponding rims adapted to fit into the grooves a a.

O is a horizontal wheel or platform of an oval lorm, and of a size a little less than the line of stitches which is intended to be formed by its aid. It is mounted on a pivot or pintle,

I), which is carried in a deep socket in the traversing carriage B.

E is an oval wheel firmly fixed on the pintle D in the position represented, and F is a corresponding wheel fixed alittlelower, and with its longer axis at right angles to the longer axis of E, as represented.

G and H are circular wheels mounted on pivots g it. These pivots g hare free to turn; but they are supported, not in the traversing carriage B, but in suitable hearings in the fixed framing A.

M is a weight corresponding in form and size to the oval wheel or platform 0, and adapted to be readily placed on and removed therefrom. The material of the hat-tip is indicated by red lines in Fig. 1. It is laid flat upon the platform O, and is pressed down on the two points a c, which project upward therefrom in the positions represented. There arecorresponding holes in the weight M, and I lay the latter upon the material of the tipin such amanner that the holes coincide in position with the pins 0 c. The hat-tip, it will therefore be understood, is smoothly and firmly held between the plane surfaces of O and M, with its edges projecting more or less in all directions beyond their peripheries.

It will be observed that the effect of the anti-friction wheels I) b is to greatly promote the freedom of motion of the frame 13 in the line directly to and from the needle while guided strictly in that line, and that the efi'ect of the two ovals Eand F, mounted as described and connected as represented, on the wheels G and H and on the several other parts is to compel the carriage B and its connections to traverse with a positive motion and a mathematical accuracy in the path thus prescribed, ac-

cording as the rotation of the platform 0, and consequently of the work carried thereon, progresses. 1 a

It is practicable and easy by the aid of my invention to sewv the linings in the oval form desired, while all previous efforts to this end have failed, as I believe, in consequence of the want of certainty and of freedom of motion.

I do not claim the devices shown in the patent issued to Rudolph Eickemeyer, March 24, 1863; but,

Having now fully described my invention, what I claim as new therein, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is as follows:

1. in combination with the operative partsv ofa sewing-machine, the within-described arrangement of the ways a a, anti-friction wheels I) b, and. traversing carriage B, adapted to support the part which carries the hat-tip and to allow it to rotate and slide freely back and forth, as herein specified.

2. In combination with the above, the employment of the two ovals E and F, arranged at right angles to each other, and adapted to act on the wheels G H, or their equivalents, so as to give a positive motion in both directions, substantially in the manner and for the purpose herein set forth.

J. W. BLACKHAM.

Witnesses:

THOMAS D. STETSON, WV. A. HENDRIGKSQN. 

